Chapter 3: Chapter Three: No Problem, I

This crazy Daoist has started again.

Li Yan rolled her eyes; escorting this Daoist down the mountain is nothing, just a trivial matter.

"Alright, I'll take you down the mountain."

Li Min sat in the courtyard, waiting for Ye Yun to pack his belongings. After about two hours, an elderly man and a young man entered the Daoist temple; Ye Yun saw them arrive, immediately went to greet them, and launched into a three‑part query—whether they were here to offer incense, to divine, or to fulfill a vow.

Li Yan followed, and at a glance realized that the silver‑haired elder was the contemporary archaeology titan, Yun Changshan!

"Daoist elder, I wonder if I may visit your temple's Scripture Repository?"

"Certainly, follow me," Ye Yun replied amiably, leading the elder and the youth to the Scripture Repository.

"Heavens! Elder Yun?!" Li Min exclaimed, instantly opening her phone to start a live broadcast.

"Everyone! Yun Changshan, Elder Yun! He's arrived at the temple!"

Li Yan said excitedly that, because it was still early, there weren't many viewers in her live room yet.

Only a handful of scattered users sent bullet comments expressing shock.

"Never expected the goods this Daoist hides are genuine," Sun Gong, the top‑ranked brother, posted. He had been watching the stream; how long had the self‑proclaimed student of Yun Changshan been screenshotting? He arrived so quickly—the value of the items in the Scripture Repository is obvious.

He saw Yun Changshan's cautious demeanor; the items in the hidden treasury were handled delicately, as if cradling a newborn infant.

"National treasure! A national treasure!" Yun Changshan said, tears streaming.

"These ancient books fill gaps in our nation's archaeology! They fill gaps in our history! Daoist elder, your temple's long‑term safeguarding of these national treasures is invaluable, invaluable!"

"The old man has an unreasonable request; I wonder if the temple can..."

"You mean you want these books, right?" Ye Yun had already observed the old man's every move; his attitude toward the books was as if he had reunited with a long‑lost son.

"No, it's not that I want these books; the nation needs them! The people need them!" Yun Changshan said, his voice trembling with emotion.

Ye Yun nodded vaguely, "If you want them, take them."

"Really?" Yun Changshan trembled with excitement, then added, "Daoist elder, what compensation do you need? I represent the nation and will do my utmost to satisfy you!"

"No money, and no extraneous things," Ye Yun waved his hand. He was already planning to descend the mountain to seek opportunity; if he broke through his shackles and flew straight to the heavens, he wouldn't return to this temple.

Better to give them away than let mice gnaw them in my own temple.

"Then, Daoist elder, may I have your full name? Or your Daoist name, for convenience?"

"Ye Yun: the leaf that knows autumn, the cloud that rolls and spreads, Daoist name Earth‑Binding True Person."

Li Yan watched from the side as Yun Changshan was ecstatic, and hadn't expected Ye Yun to casually give away these priceless books.

"Everyone, this Daoist Ye is truly transcendent! He donated these treasured temple books straight to the nation," Li Yan said into her phone; Yun Changshan's appearance had already brought her live room up to a hundred thousand viewers.

"Host, what does this Daoist say his name is?"

Sun Gong suddenly asked in the bullet comments.

"Ye Yun, Earth‑Binding True Person," Li Yan replied.

"WTF! It's him, really him!"

Li Yan hadn't figured out the situation yet when she saw Sun Gong go offline.

Meanwhile, at the Sun Family Courtyard in Long Nation Haiyan City, Sun Gong hurried out of the living room.

"Grandfather! You told me that Great‑Grandfather met an enlightened master, was enlightened by him, and that's why our family has today's wealth and status, right?"

Sun Liwen, who was practicing tai chi, gave his grandson an irritated glance; hadn't this grandson said he didn't believe in such things? Why is the sun rising in the west today, running to ask him?

"Indeed, your great‑grandfather made a promise with that master, received a favor, and vowed to repay it, but later he never saw the master again."

"Was that master named Ye Yun, Earth‑Binding Immortal? Did Great‑Grandfather meet him in the eighth year of the Republic?"

"Why do you remember? Ask me?"

Sun Gong slapped his thigh, pulled out his phone, and opened Douyin.

After a night of viral spread, Ye Yun's video of a five‑meter jump had flooded the internet; Sun Gong grabbed a random video and handed it to his grandfather.

"Is it him?"

"Hmm?" Sun Liwen took the phone skeptically.

When he saw the figure on the screen clearly, he immediately became unsettled.

He ran into the house, comparing the portrait of the Chinese‑style ancestor in the living room for a long while.

"Truly, a real immortal! After a hundred years, he hasn't changed a bit!"

"Where is he? Quickly, let's go find him!"

"But there's one book I can't give you," Ye Yun said, picking up a bamboo slip from a pile of ancient bamboo slips.

"I gave that book to that little girl, so if you want this bamboo slip, you have to ask her," Ye Yun said, placing the slip into Li Yan's hand.

Li Yan was stunned for a moment; so the Daoist was serious?

Yesterday she thought Ye Yun was just joking with her, but he actually gave it away?

That's a treasure worth over ten million, and he gives it away so easily?

Yun Changshan stared intensely at the ancient scroll in Li Yan's hand; the scroll was the solitary copy of the Dao De Jing his student had screenshot and sent him yesterday.

If it were merely a solitary Dao De Jing, it wouldn't be much, but the key is that it bears the seal of the lost thousand‑year‑old Imperial Jade Seal!

Just that makes the bamboo slip extraordinarily significant; combined with a Dao De Jing from the reign of Emperor Wen of the Western Han, it is even closer to the original and holds considerable research value.

Li Yan continued her live broadcast; the Daoist was so carefree that if she kept being timid, she'd look out of place.

"I'll donate it to the nation too," Li Yan said with a smile, putting the bamboo slip down.

Ye Yun, on his side, gave a faint smile, turned and walked out the door, leaving the elder and the youth to tidy up.

"After we descend the mountain, I'll compensate you; it probably isn't worth much money."

"Not worth much? I'd guess it's worth a few thousand ten‑thousands?" Li Yan said trailing behind.

"What does a few thousand ten‑thousands mean? Is it worth ten thousand taels of gold? Last time Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang asked me to forge a cold‑removing pill for his horse, he gave me ten thousand taels of gold."

"Talk on, keep talking," Li Yan muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes and shifting her gaze to the phone screen.

"So where's your ten thousand taels of gold? Where is it?"

"Naturally I gave it away as charity; I don't have it now, but if I wanted it, someone could bring it to me in an instant. Do you believe that?"

In the live room, laughter rang out: "Hahaha, I just realized I've fallen for this brag‑talking Daoist; he bluffs as if it were real, I almost believed him!"

"Ten thousand taels of gold works out to about a billion, give or take; ten million is nothing to that Daoist."

"Right, right, give the streamer a 100‑yuan tip to console the streamer who just lost ten million."

"We're still talking about Zhu Yuanzhang, why not Qin Shi Huang? Never mind, in light of this Daoist's selfless donation of relics, let's tip the streamer a few hundred yuan to console them."

Li Yan was just about to say thank you when, suddenly, several colorful flags drifted across the live room.

Dozens of super rockets shot upward, looking like a volley of ten thousand arrows.

Li Yan was dumbfounded, staring blankly at the sky‑piercing rockets.

"Thanks to Brother Sun Liben for sending the rockets! First meeting and he's already sent so many super rockets—thanks, thanks!"

"Sun Liben? That name sounds familiar."

"He's the CEO of Changhe Group!"

"Could the streamer have something…"

"Could it be…"

"Stop, stop, stop, cut it out! I just met this Sun CEO too. If I don't explain any further, these folks won't know where they'll drift off to."

Sun Liben posted a bullet comment: "Daoist Ye is right; as long as Daoist Ye wants, there are plenty of people ready to send money to Daoist Ye!"

"Didn't Daoist Ye just say he'd compensate you for that ten million? I'll give you the compensation on behalf of Daoist Ye!"

Sun Liben's comment just floated by, and the super rockets kept flooding the sky as if they were free.

After spending nearly a million on super rockets, Sun the CEO seemed to have an epiphany, realizing the priciest gift is only 2,000 yuan each; filling ten million would take ages, so he just went straight for the 'Noble' tier!

One 'Emperor' tier costs 200,000 per month, 2.4 million a year—so just go for ten years!

Over ten million, done!

Li Yan's popularity instantly topped ZZ Live, breaking the hundred‑million mark, and the subscriber count instantly surged into the hundreds of thousands.

"This streamer is the one who posted that clip of a Daoist's light‑step technique?"

"Right, right—who would have thought anyone would tip over ten million? Be good!"

Newly arrived netizens, clueless, began to feel something was off about this.

But the doubt was instantly drowned out by the torrent of bullet comments.

Li Yan hadn't yet recovered from the shock of sudden wealth when Ye Yun beside her asked, "Little girl, why are you staring at that little iron box?"

"Little iron box?" Li Yan blushed, turned her head toward Ye Yun, and her gaze changed.

She began to doubt herself; for a whole day she'd thought this man was a crazy Daoist, rambling about Emperor Hanwen one moment, Zhuge Liang the next—figures from antiquity—yet now a living Sun Liben suddenly materialized to praise him.

Could it be that this mad Daoist actually possesses some great ability? What he said before might be true; perhaps he's merely bragging with stories passed down from his master's ancestors.

"Whoa, I'm lucky to have seen the legendary golden rain today!"

"Someone upstairs, correction: this is rain of gold."

Ye Yun met Li Yan's gaze with an innocent expression.

"What are you looking at me for?"

"Nothing, someone's sending you money."